raywest

The officer got me with a radar. Yeah, I've considered getting one but never really wanted one because I didn't think I would get another ticket.

Was saving up for an iPad. lol.

350FSport

iTrader: (1)

Pretty harsh. Here in GA I just got popped @ 76 in 45, but the cop wrote it for 65/45, and I went to court and got it dropped to 59/45 so that it does not show on my record. $215 but hey, it could have been a lot worse!

raywest

what did you say in court? please reduce it for me? did you plead guilty? i'm thinking i go to court and ask to go to traffic school....

codenko

iTrader: (8)

Yeah, those are legal in CA and I'm runnning a escort 8500 x50. Now that its the outdated model, you can pick one up for about $200... I'm thinking about upgrading to the GPS enabled 9500ix tho...no false alerts for me!

calvin2376

iTrader: (2)

Yeah some of those features are neat, but my thinking is this. What's the worst thing that could happen if you get a false alert? You slow down for 10 seconds, realize it's a false alert, and continue. That's it. If your detector is giving you truly "false" alerts, meaning there actually is no radar in the area, then it's malfunctioning anyway.

As far as false alerts that are truly radar but not a cop, you learn where these alerts occur (like motion sensor store doors, etc) so when they happen you remember you don't have to slow down.

Similar reasoning goes for the directional alerts given by the Valentine 1. If my radar detector goes off, I'm going to slow down until it's out of range. Doesn't matter if it's ahead of me, to the side of me, or behind me, the result is the same: I slow down till out of range. So what's the point of directional alerts?

I just personally haven't found a reason to pay several hundred dollars more for any features like this. A basic Beltronics detector for $100-150 with none of these features will accomplish everything you need. The only thing I could see paying more for is increased sensitivity, since that can actually assist at times in warning you sooner, but with my 955 I've never been in a situation where it hasn't warned me in time or I've needed extra sensitivity.

snaggle

guys, really.. after reading all of this, i feel very smart or lucky (one of them). Ever since i bought my IS350 , been 8 months now, i have been driving it very hard and fast, naturally with any car i do that. on the 40mph zones i generally drive just under 50mph.. say 48mph. Im always looking for those white ford crown vic's (cop cars), and by reflex when i see one, i immediately slow down. Now, for the freeways and highways, its a different story. I literally will drive 20-50mph above the speed limit, all you need to do is look for cops, and on highways and freeways, they are too easy for me to spot. I literally cannot find it possible to get caught speeding, especially on highway/freeways.. Also, the high quality radar detectors help ALOT. I suggest people with problems spotting them with their own eye buy one.
Tip: dont waste money on the medium quality or low quality detectors, they are crap and full of false alerts. Get the best or nothing (as mercedes would say lol)

Bichon

"Car thief" would have been even funnier, but equally likely to land you in jail.

In NJ, your best bet is talk to the prosecutor the day of your trial. In most cases, the prosecutor will change the offense to "unsafe driving", which has a pretty big fine but no points (unless you get three of them within a five year period)

raywest

I'm going to order this asap! Thanks for that, haha...is the Passport better than the Valentino?

calvin2376

iTrader: (2)

Literally, you're being stupid speeding that much (although I suspect a healthy dose of arrogant hyperbole here). And literally, you're going to get caught. You're literally not smarter than the police, and literally one day you're going to be lasered going 50 over from farther away than your Superman eyes can see.

Any basis for your claims whatsoever? Try Googling for reviews of "medium" quality detectors (which I'm assuming you mean as anything below a V1) and you'll find excellent performance. I've run my V955 for over 5 years now with no issues, I've had no tickets, and it was "medium" grade and only $150.

Also, I'm not sure I know anyone who would consider Mercedes "the best" at anything, other than overengineering cars with expensive, complicated components that break down just after the warranty period. And this is coming from a past owner of an E55 AMG that required $15,000 in repair costs at 60k miles.

Joeb427

iTrader: (1)

Many good points in your post but the highlighted line was great and true.

350FSport

iTrader: (1)

ALWAYS go to court for speeding tickets. Never just pay them online or whatever. I don't know CA law, but is there a number of miles over where points start, or is it points for 1 mph over? In GA its 15+ mph over gets you points (reported to DMV). I have had 4-5 tickets in the past 4 years, and every single one of the courts in each different county reduced my speed to 14 over as long as I paid the fine. If you pull my report, I have a "perfect" driving history, none of them have showed up. Had I paid online, all of those would have been 2 points each, and my insurance would suck lol. Just go to court, and ask them what you have to do so that it does not get reported to your record. Some may require driving school but even that is better than points!

broken_tsi

iTrader: (1)

That's still expensive! My old roommate had to pay ~$460 for a 138 in a 55 ticket in AZ with no traffic school.

snaggle

First of all, i want to say you probably misunderstood the mercedes part, i was making fun of them more than i was complimenting. I personally dislike mercedes and think what you said about them could not have been said better.

What I meant with radar detectors with the medium and low, is because i have had 3 in my life, and 2 of them were 100 and 200 dollars each, both were cobra, both were garbage. When I bought the valentine one, it worked much better, but i still felt I could dodge the cops without them.

For the speeding part, im serious... the reason why I speed on the highway/freeways is because it just annoys me how they havent increased them in a LONG time. Cars these days are getting more and more advanced, with capabilites of being more safe and stable at higher speeds, therefore the speed limits are SUPPOSED to be increased.. that is the WHOLE point of making better, faster, safer cars. They should really bump up the speed limits, 70mph on a freeway or interstates are WAY too slow for the quality of cars these days. Also, they should also make a law about the left lanes. I hate it when people drive the speed limit on the left lane or even sometimes lower than the limit on the left lane. If something cops should pull over the cars who go 5 miles or more under the speed limit on the left lane.

Having said all of this, I drive on freeways how fast I personally think is relatively safe for the condition/traffic level. Theres no way im gonna drive 70, 80, or 90mph on a freeway at night that is completely empty with no cars in good weather conditions. For my car in those conditions I definately feel 100mph is a reasonable speed.

Kurtz

iTrader: (1)

I'm pretty sure it's not.

The point of making safer cars is to save lives, not so we can increase speed limits.


Sadly they've not found a way to improve drivers though, which remain the most crucial piece of safety equipment in the vehicle.

Further, all those bits of safety required hardware make the cars heavier too... heavier+more speed... well, you might wanna look into a little thing Newton called F=MA.

calvin2376

iTrader: (2)

Given this, I would probably limit my generalizations on the quality of radar detectors to Cobra, since that's the only brand you've had experience with. In my research on radar detectors I found Cobra to be far more prevalent at the lower end of the market, with the middle being dominated by Beltronics and the high end by Escort (which makes Beltronics) and Valentine 1. I also found fairly harsh reviews on Cobra's detectors in terms of quality and reliability. So I think it's unfair to say all low-to-medium range detectors are "crap and full of false alerts".

I assure you that people far more intelligent and experienced than you and I in the fields of automotive engineering/safety and traffic, urban, and highway planning have studied raising speed limits on the highways/freeways you speak of and have decided based on valid criteria that it's not a good idea. There are myriad things that go into determining this, things one might not think of off the top of their head (environmental concerns from higher emissions of vehicles traveling faster, for example).

Simply because they haven't been raised in a long time doesn't mean they should be raised.

This quote genuinely makes me fear I've fallen victim to trolling...

Like Kurtz said above, the last thing on the minds of automotive safety engineers when designing cars is what politicians will do to speed limits once their car is on the road. That's because there's no correlation between the two. Cars are made safer to make drivers safer.

They do have laws like this: http://www.mit.edu/~jfc/right.html. The signs you see on highways that say "Slower Traffic Stay Left" aren't just for show, and police can and do pull over people holding up traffic in the left lane.

There's so much wrong here. What you personally think is a safe speed has no relevance, frankly. As much as you'd like to think so, you have no idea about your ability to react to a crisis going 100 MPH because I'm guessing you've never done it. Even if it has happened to you before, every crisis is different and requires a different reaction. The simple fact is, backed up by decades of research, that drivers cannot react as effectively or as timely to situations when going faster than when they're going slower. More importantly, despite what you may think or know about your own capabilities, you have no idea about those of other drivers.

I'm going to stop both my post and my portion of this debate here, though I and other reasonable people could go on trying to explain how wrong you are, but it'd likely be futile. In any case, going 100 MPH or 50 MPH over the speed limit is always dangerous, moreso than you have the capability or experience to realize, and frankly taking to a forum to boast about how fast you drive is juvenile.